Near Daviston in Tallapoosa County, Alabama — The American South (East South Central)

Designed for Defense

Horseshoe Bend National Military Park

By TRCP Alliance, June 16, 2011

1. Designed for Defense Marker

Inscription.

Designed for Defense. Horseshoe Bend National Military Park. . ...[The Creek] had erected a breast-work, of greatest compactness and strength-from five to eight feet high, and prepared with double rows of port-holes very artfully arranged...an army could not approach it without being exposed to a double and cross fire from the enemy who lay in perfect security behind it. . Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, Tennessee Militia . . The Red Sticks-a militant branch of Creek society-built the 400-yard-long barricade (breast-work) of dirt and pine logs. Stretching from bank to bank across the horseshoe bend of the Tallapoosa River, the barricade protected Tohopeka, their temporary village. . . On a dreadful March afternoon in 1814, the barricade exploded with action. Nearly 1,000 Red Stick warriors bravely fought General Jackson's army here. About a third of the warriors carried muskets. The others used bows and arrows, knives, tomahawks, and war clubs.

...[The Creek] had erected a breast-work, of greatest compactness and strength-from five to eight feet high, and prepared with double rows of port-holes very artfully arranged...an army could not approach it without being exposed to a double and cross fire from the enemy who lay in perfect security behind it.Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, Tennessee Militia

The Red Sticks-a militant branch of Creek society-built the 400-yard-long barricade (breast-work) of dirt and pine logs. Stretching from bank to bank across the horseshoe bend of the Tallapoosa River, the barricade protected Tohopeka, their temporary village.

On a dreadful March afternoon in 1814, the barricade exploded with action. Nearly 1,000 Red Stick warriors bravely fought General Jackson's army here. About a third of the warriors carried muskets. The others used bows and arrows, knives, tomahawks, and war clubs.

Erected by National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior.

Location. 32° 58.502′ N, 85° 44.135′ W. Marker is near Daviston, Alabama, in Tallapoosa County. Marker can be reached from Battlefield Park Tour Road, on the left. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 11288 Horseshoe Bend Road, Daviston AL 36256, United States of America.

Other nearby markers.

By TRCP Alliance, June 16, 2011

2. While the Long Roll Was Beating, Charge! and Designed for Defense Markers

The log breastwork the Red Sticks built across the peninsula was, Jackson wrote, “eighty-poles in length, from five to eight feet high & of remarkable compactness & strength….” It was “prepared with double rows of Port Holes well formed & skillfully arranged, [and] was of such a figure that an Army could not approach it, without being exposed to a cross fire.” Just before the battle, Jackson placed two small cannon here, a 3-pounder and a 6-pounder, trained on the barricade. About 10:30 a.m., he “opened a brisk fire upon its centre; but altho the balls which passed through, killed several of the enemy, they were not disbursed, nor was any important damage done to the works.” Finally,

By TRCP Alliance, June 16, 2011

3. Tour Stop #2 with three markers

at 12:30 p.m., Jackson ordered a frontal attack of the Creek position.

Surging forward, his troops quickly overran the barricade and, after vicious hand-to-hand fighting, drove the Red Sticks down the peninsula toward Coffee’s mounted infantry and Indian allies. “The event could no longer be in doubt,” Jackson would later write. “The enemy altho many of them fought to the last with the kind of bravery desperation inspires, were at last entirely routed and cut to pieces. The whole margin of the river which surrounded the peninsula was strewed with the slain.

The Red Sticks shaped the barricade into a shallow "U' to trap attackers in a deadly crossfire. Sharpened stakes protruded from the front to keep attackers from scaling the wall.

By TRCP Alliance, June 16, 2011

7. The Defending Red Sticks.

Creek warriors fighting against the United States were called Red Sticks because they painted their war clubs red, a color symbolizing war. Traditionally, Creek men painted their faces, arms, and chests black or red before going into battle.

By TRCP Alliance, June 16, 2011

8. Red Sticks fighting along the Barricade

Credits. This page was last revised on June 16, 2016. This page originally submitted on August 30, 2011, by Timothy Carr of Birmingham, Alabama. This page has been viewed 830 times since then and 2 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. submitted on August 30, 2011, by Timothy Carr of Birmingham, Alabama. • Bill Pfingsten was the editor who published this page.

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